Anime / Hunter x Hunter

Considering Sailor Moon (and their own reboot), it's pretty damn likely they'll be using Studiopolis or possibly Bang Zoom to record the dub.

Hopefully Toonami can get shot at premiering the show

So, I'm at Episode 51 after not watching this for like half a year, and if memory serves:

• Kurapika learned Nen and became a bodyguard
• Most of the bodyguards get wiped out by Uvogin
• So some Elite Mook's come to help
• They get wiped out, Kurapika captures and kills Uvogin
• Now the Troupe is after Kurapika

So in Episode 51 of the Yorknew City arc:

• There's an Assassin Team hired by the Nostrade family to deal with the Troupe
• The Genre Savvy one following Chrollo is dead, as well as a crap ton of Nostrade mooks, were all killed
• And the Troupe is wreaking havoc in honor of Uvogin; end episode

I like that the Phantom Troupe is so quirky and personable. Glasses-girl forgetting she ever met Gon during that arm-wrestle, the Troupe having disagreements settled with coin tosses, Nobunaga actually laughing at Gon and Kilua's antics.

But Chrollo's operatic performance just... has me annoyed for some reason.

I wonder what's going to happen when Kilua's dad gets involved.

edited 17th Apr '18 12:04:15 PM by Soble

Operatic is not really how I'd describe Chrollo.

Chrollo's opera was one of my favorite parts of the Yorknew arc.

(2) I don't know what else to call the part where he's watching the havoc from a building while swinging his arms around with music playing in the background.

Exactly the same, it's the culmination of what the arc was leading towards. Utterly fantastic.

...oh, right, I had forgotten about that. My bad.

HXH's older than Hellsing, and the only other time I've seen a villain dance to the destruction of innocent lives was when Joker did it in Batman Arkham Origins. But while it worked for the Major and Joker because they was getting off on all of the senseless destruction, it looks silly when non-Chaotic Evil villains do it.

edited 18th Apr '18 7:41:26 AM by Soble

But... Chrollo is pretty much Chaotic Evil. Or at least Neutral Evil with Chaotic Evil leanings.

He's a mixture of all that.

He is Black Strawberry Vertical Evil.

edited 18th Apr '18 2:14:50 PM by OmegaRadiance

Yeah, Chrollo is pretty Chaotic Evil I would say. He has no real goals other than amusing himself and his posse and anything they actually achieve from their crimes doesn't matter that much.

Wasn't the point that he considered it a requiem for Uvo? He thought it was a moving tribute to a man's life.

edited 18th Apr '18 6:44:59 PM by Clarste

Episode 54

Fortunes. That's... an ingenious way of creating suspense. I might steal that for a story some day.

Episode 61. Greed Island at last.

So... many... goddamn... rules... and exposition...

It gets worse later on in the manga, but I think part of that was just the translation. Fan translations have a bad habit of being overly literal and doing very little localization, which results in a lot of roundabout sentences and weird stilted lines that don't flow well.

I was going to correct myself and say "there's too much worldbuilding."

But, in a weird way, once the arc gets going it's kind of enjoyable. I was enjoying the Yorknew City arc once Kurapika captured Uvogin, and again when Gon and Kilua got captured, and yet again when they, Kurapika, and Leorio were moving against the Spiders - despite the immense number of explanations of how different abilities worked, which is normally a red flag for me.

The Hunter Exam was kind of dull until Gon met Hisoka and then, all of a sudden, I'm super-invested in the characters. (Well, in the 1999 version I'd say it was boring until Illumi and Hisoka started playing cards - that moment caught me off guard) Not too much talking, each stage felt unique, and we were learning a little more about the cast each time. Nothing felt squandered and there was an implication of a much larger world out there.

Compared to some other anime I could name, the intense amount of world-building makes this setting feel like an actual place, with people whose lives don't revolve around the protagonist, hobbies and professions and traditions that weren't created as some sort of cosmic obstacle for Gon and Killua to overcome.

It's just a bit of a whiplash since I was just learning about Kurapika's chains, and beginning to learn about Gon and Killua's techniques, and about Hisoka's connection to the Spiders and then... hey, Greed Island rules, stuff about cards, stuff about cards, stuff about player-killing, stuff about the game's objective.

And I'm pretty the allegedly infamous Chimera Ant arc is somewhere after this, which will then launch into details about their hierarchy and physiology from what I gather.

As positively biased as I am, I've heard the Greed Island arc wasn't the strongest in HXH's history.

edited 23rd Apr '18 5:21:36 PM by Soble

The Greed Island arc has lots of good moments but it lacks a clear focus like the other arcs which can make it feel very aimless.

And yes, Hx H is up there with One Piece and Fullmetal Alchemist for the best and most textured worlds in a shonen.

edited 23rd Apr '18 5:07:16 PM by Sigilbreaker26

You're correct. The Chimera Ant Arc is up next. And yes, Greed Island is one of the lesser regarded arcs overall; it tends to get overshadowed by Yorknew and the Chimera Ant which are usually considered the best ones.

Also the great thing about Hx H's setting is that it can probably be expanded almost indefinitely and be used to tell lots of different stories. There's even more worldbuilding after the point the anime stops that really puts things into perspective.

edited 23rd Apr '18 5:10:38 PM by Draghinazzo

Weird. By telling me all of these things about the setting without showing the protagonists getting involved in, or mastering every single possible thing, it makes the world feel more realistic.

You probably noticed, but I don't think Gon really has a meaningful interaction with Chrollo even once despite him being the Phantom Troupe's leader and the main villain in the arc. And it makes in-universe sense too because Gon is still pretty green so there's no way he would ever be able to stand up to Chrollo who's just as strong if not stronger than Hisoka, and moreover he has no real personal stake there outside of helping Kurapika who is basically the main character of that arc instead.

edited 23rd Apr '18 5:13:45 PM by Draghinazzo

Yeah the world-building in this series is pretty well-made. This series is a real slow burn.

Though the Greed Island isn't as good as the Yorknew Arc. It didn't help that I didn't like the game, felt & looked too generic.

....... Huh I think Ging may have half-assed it.

Its incredible that they never force it. I mean look at Bleach that has almost every Final Boss finished by Ichigo even if Ichigo barely has any connection or relation to the main antagonist.

edited 23rd Apr '18 5:16:16 PM by slimcoder

Well, definitely makes this series a fun watch. And yes, Chrollo's lack of interaction with Gon, hell, Kurapika actually capturing Chrollo successfully and depowering him was pretty refreshing.

The Yorknew arc felt so great, it's not that often that this sort of series can show the heroes be so completely out of their depth.